The life of a princess

Regan turned 5 and wanted a princess party and of course who was I to say no.  We invited 5 friends and headed off to Whipper Snippers for a princess party where the girls where treated to dressing up like princesses and pampered with nails and pretty hair dos.

Clint was not to thrilled with the price at first, but I didn't think it was that bad for all we got, plus after watching the TLC show Outrageous Kids Parties and seeing the $30,000 princess party, I am pretty sure $195 is a good deal.

The girls had so much fun and had so much fun being pampered. and all looked so beautiful after they were done.

Prince Charming, where are you???? We are waiting......

No party is complete with presents, princess presents.  Regan has so many nice friends who know exactly what she likes.  Of course I'm sure the lists she wrote and telling them over and over helped.

Then we had a mishap in the midst of the fun.... Princess down :(  Poor Sierra.  Puke clean up in aisle 2....    It's not a party until someone pukes, right?

It was a great day and Regan and all her friends had so much fun.  We are so blessed to have such a sweet, caring, loving, energetic , little diva princess . 

Cutting the cord

I learned the hard way that sometimes doing to much for your child can hinder them and not help them.  Kyle was my only child for so long and he was very spoiled.  Not only did I, but grandma's, aunts and cousins also did everything for him.  As he got older we all began to realize that we didn't do him any favors.  That has always been a struggle I have had with Clint is how I "coddle" him and need to make him more responsible.

I have to wake him up, he can not get up with an alarm, that will not help him later in life.  I finally stopped packing his lunch and if he doesn't do it, then he just doesn't have lunch.   He does do his own laundry, although he will let it sit longer than I'd like in the washer or dryer.  There are alot of things he asks me to do that he could totally do on his own and I can't fault him because I raised him that way.

Kyle is now 18 and I finally had to just set him free and let him learn his lessons the hard way.  Yesterday was that day.  Kyle has flown almost every month for the past few months and knows you need an ID to travel.  Before we left for the airport, I asked him 3 times if he had his ID and debit card.  I also told him we couldn't check him in online because the system was down so he would need his ID or debit card and go to the kiosk to check in.  He told me he was not stupid and knew what he was doing, alrighty then.....

On the drive up he decides to try and re-pack his bag in the car, is climbing from the front of the van to the back, clothes all over the place.  All I keep thinking is this is not my problem.

We drive almost an hour to the Portland airport, get to the curb at departures and I mention the kiosk again to which he replies " I need my ID"?  I am sure you all can imagine my reaction.  He starts t freak out, I start yelling because I asked him 3 times before we left and he tried to tell me he didn't know.  I am on fire by this point.  He climbs back up to the front seat, and starts to get out but all his stuff is not in his bag.  The United curb drop off is packed and I am half in and half out of a spot because people do not know how to pull up to a curb and make room for others.  He is trying to organize his bag, asked me what to do while people are honking there horns and the cop is flagging me to go.  I told him to figure it out and shoved him out of the car and sped off.  He had a debit card, cash and a cell phone, he could take the shuttle or a cab back to Salem if he needed to, but I was not helping him.  He got himself into this mess and he was going to be an adult like he keeps telling me he is and get himself out of it.  My mom was not to please I left him "stranded" , you would have thought I left Parker alone at the airport.  Nana is super protective her her #1 grandson.

They let him on the plane after extensive searching and body scanning but he was not going to be able to get back through CVG airport.  I told him I would ship his ID to Nana's and thought that would be the end of it.  Problem is, we can't find his ID and it is not where he thought it was.   Well, too bad, so sad I say and figure out how you are going to get back home.  I'm sure my mom will take care of it for him because after I asked her at least 10 times on the phone not to and to let him figure out his own mess I could tell she was going to do it.  That is not helping me or him.  We all should have been sent to enablers anonymous years ago.

I can guarantee you Regan and Parker are 100 times more responsible at 4 & 5 than Kyle ever was and I also realize it is my fault so I am not going to repeat the cycle with the next 2.

Don't get me wrong, Kyle is a  great kid and can be responsible.  He is amazing with kids, incredible with his brother and sister, kind and caring but he needs to learn to do more on his own especially since he is 18 and wants to move to San Diego.  I am trying to give him the reality of the big picture.

He assures me and Nana he will take care of getting back to Portland and I hope he does.  I just hope he doesn't have the same ID as Nana and thinks he can go to the DMV and get a new one being he has no SS card, no birth certificate with him nor is he an Ohio resident.  Good luck!

He has 10 days to figure it out and we'll see what happens, until then I am going to enjoy not having to hide food, clean up after him and PRAY alot that he figures this all out and realizes mom did this all out of love.

It's all fun & games until mom puts you on skis

My husband grew up skiing and it is his dream to ski with his children.  Regan has been asking to ski for some time now and Parker seemed undecided.  Since March is birthday month we decided to take the kids for some tubing fun and ski lessons.

The night before we packed up all our stuff, Regan kept talking all evening about how she was going to ski and how excited she was. She was going to get a good sleep so she would be ready to go.  She woke up pretty early came into our room and announced she had a good sleep and had lots of energy to ski.  We all got up, got dressed and hit the road for a fun filled family day.  The kids were so excited to see the snow.

We started out with tubing and the kids had a blast.  They laughed and squealed all the way up and down the hills.  We would get to the bottom and they would yell "let's go again, let's go again now".

Regan was so excited to get all geared up and ready to ski.

Look at these cute little future Olympic skiers all happy and ready to hit the slopes. We started out excited and ready to learn. 

Parker doing "the pizza" stance.  I see a gold medal in his future USA, USA.   Fast forward 15 minutes...............

Man down, man down.....

2 kids down...............  Sorry dad, looks like your dreams of little skiers just died :(

then it went from bad to worse, how worse you ask??





Both kids screamed to get the skis off, I had to carry both sets of skis, while Parker held onto my leg screaming he wanted his snow boots off.  Regan started taking her hat, gloves, goggles and coat off which I had to bend over and pick up with Parker attached to my leg screaming and 2 sets of skis.  Parker fell a few times and did a few dramatic roll overs and screeches that were best actor Oscar worthy.  At this point I am frazzled, sweaty ,in desperate need of a drink and not happy we just dropped $100 + 32.00 for new goggles for the kids to decide they didn't want to ski.  Pretty sure I could have gotten some sweet boots or a sassy new outfit for that money. Instead what I do have is no sweet new boots, nor a sassy new outfit and 2 whining, mad, pissed off crabby kids.~Life is really freaking sweet in my world right now!!!

We finally make it to the lodge and Parker is still screaming "get these boots off  NOWWWWWWW mommy" and a dad looks at Parker and says " I was watching you buddy and you were doing good, just keep on trying" to which Parker looks at him, throws himself back on the ground, points up and says "stop talking to me, don't talk to me, I go home NOWWWWWWW".  Good thing this dad had a sense of humor and we both laughed and I continued on ,desperate to get back to the ski school change room.  We finally made and Parker continued to cry for no reason and I tried to calm him down but all he wanted to do was go home.  Clint was snowboarding so we had to wait.  Bribes of slushies and ice cream finally got him to calm down.  Yes, I bribe my children with sweet snacks for my sanity!   AS we walked to the lodge cafeteria, I saw a bar so I decided to get myself a drink.  By this point, we looked like hobo's.  I had Clint's huge ski bag, Regan had just her socks on, Parker had one snow boot on, one snow boot off and I looked like , well this.....

I get to the bar and they wouldn't serve me because I didn't have my ID, it was in the car.  I was practically begging the bartender to give me a drink and not only did I not have my ID, but I had my husbands credit card, so we were hobos with no ID"s and a credit card not in our name.  I guess I am lucky they didn't call security on us.  I had to settle for a red slushie and was thankful the lady in the cafeteria area let me use my husband's card with no ID.

We finally found daddy and decided to head home.

Regan fell asleep eating her snack.

and Parker just fell, I had to push him back upright and make sure he was still breathing.







Overall family fun day was 85% fun.  We missed Kyle who didn't go because it isn't cool to hang with your parents and little siblings now that you are 18. Tubing was the best part of the day and even though skiing was a disaster, We have funny memories and stories that will keep us laughing for years to come.